3.5 x 4.7 Antique Fereghan Sarouk Rug, Central Persia, Circa 1900
This antique Fereghan Sarouk rug, woven in Sultanabad province in central Persia, has a distinctive design with three medallions that are connected vertically on an ivory field. Antique Sarouk rugs are notable for the clear aesthetic changes that suggest the period in which they were woven. This piece has the more rectilinear articulation of the floral elements that would place it in the circa 1900, or perhaps slightly earlier, period. Later Fereghan Sarouk rugs, from circa 1910, tend to be thicker, heavier textiles with more curvilinear motifs that anticipate the transition to the Mahajaran Sarouk type rugs that started in the circa 1910 or 1915 period. Mahajaran Sarouk rugs eventually transitioned into the “commercial” or “painted” Sarouks rugs of the 1920s and 1930s. By that time, although having a common origin in the Sarouk village area, these were very different rugs to the earlier Fereghan Sarouk types.
Douglas Stock Gallery Antique Oriental Rug Research Archives
